In America it seems that gum and cigarettes are the only two items that are “socially” acceptable to toss almost wherever you want. I always see people drop their butts, spit the gum out of the window and generally just toss them anywhere without even a thought.
What happens to them?
Obviously the world is not knee deep in sticky cigarette butts.
Does the gum breakdown fairly quickly when exposed to sunlight and water? Do the ants get it? Does it become a beneficial part of the asphalt?
Are certain brands of cigarettes made to breakdown quicker than others? I remember that when I was in college all my “granola” friends claimed they smoked Camels because the filters were “all natural.”
So what’s the deal? I’m losing sleep at night wondering about this possible crisis.
*I’m not personally a big fan of tossing cigarette butts out the window. IMHO they should be treated like any other type of garbage.
If you think the world isn’t knee-deep in used gum, you should take a walk through the New York City subway system. Man oh man, you never saw so much ancient gum on the ground. It must be socially acceptable among some groups to spit out gum on the ground, but I never met anyone who did so. The problem with gum is twofold: it DOESN’T biodegrade to any signifigant degree, plus there is widespread (incorrect) belief that swallowing gum is bad for you. Hence, tons of ancient gum lying on the ground. After sitting awhile, gum hardens into a small, black spheroid, almost becoming part of the sidewalk. Cigarette-tossing is understandable also; after all, many people don’t want cigarette ash in their cars, so they just pitch them. It would be nice if people wouldn’t just leave butts lying around, but they do degrade (being just paper, tobacco, and miscellaneous other shit).
A friend of mine recently made it clear that he didn’t like that people tossed butts out the window (unless it was a human butt, which I’m sure he finds as funny as I do.
If I’m near a gabage can I step on the tip to tear off the filter in hand & then through the now fire-free butt into the trash. Otherwise, I’m guilty of unloading tons-o-butts on the streets of Chi-Town & am sure that they eventually decompose or make it into the giant street sweepers hungry mouths. - JC
Here in Southern California, cigarette butts that are tossed into the streets often end up in the sewer drains and make their way into our beautiful oceans.
